Screaming on the Giant Canyon Swing

As much as we like to make people smile, we also like to make them scream. These two gentlemen can attest to that fact! The Giant Canyon Swing here at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park has been called “the scariest ride in the world” by many a rider. You can now take home memories of your ride, if you’re brave enough to try it. We’re located on top of Iron Mountain in scenic Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

Bring the Family to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park!

There’s a full day of family fun waiting for you at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park! Located on top of Iron Mountain overlooking beautiful Glenwood Springs, Colorado, the park offers lots of options for kids (or adults!) who aren’t quite ready for our over-the-top thrill rides. You can enjoy scenic tram rides, guided walking cave tours, the Mine Wheel Ferris wheel ride, the family-friendly Wild West Express roller coaster, the bouncing GiddyUp ride, a laser tag arena, a climbing wall, a giant maze and a 4D Motion Theater. Come on up and bring the whole family!

Over-the-Top Thrills at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park

Over the top of Glenwood Canyon, that is! Are you ready to fly out 1,300 feet above the Colorado River? Head to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Glenwood Springs, where there are three ways to experience the adrenaline rush of cliff-side thrill rides: the new Glenwood Canyon Flyer, the Cliffhanger Roller Coaster and the Giant Canyon Swing. You can also enjoy an exciting ride on our newly re-engineered Soaring Eagle Zip Ride, with breathtaking views of the Roaring Fork Valley.

One of the Top 10 Roller-Coaster Rides in America!

Want to ride one of America’s 10 best roller coasters? Come on up to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and ride the Alpine Coaster! USA Today and Park World editor Paul Ruben named it one of America’s 10 Best Roller-Coaster Rides! Our Alpine Coaster was the first of its kind in the U.S., and is still the longest one in Colorado. It’s open year-round, so you can experience the thrill winter, spring, summer and fall!

Help name our new ride and you could win!

There’s a new attraction coming to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park this spring that will swing you up, up, up, around and around, and out over Glenwood Canyon. We need your help in coming up with a name for it, so we’re holding a contest on our Facebook page.

The grand prize, valued at almost $500, includes eight Funday Passes, each of which offers unlimited turns on all of the park’s rides, plus four souvenir cups and four t-shirts. The passes can be used one or two at a time, for two days at the park for a family of four, or for one party of eight. To enter the contest, post your entries at Facebook.com/GlenwoodCaverns by midnight on Friday, Feb. 14.

“The Giant Canyon Swing and Cliffhanger Roller Coaster have been so popular with our guests, we want to offer them another way to experience the thrill of our location overlooking Glenwood Canyon,” said Steve Beckley, who owns Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park with his wife Jeanne. “The new ride does just that, and because our guests and fans have been so supportive over the years, we’d like their help in coming up with a name for it. Our hope is to find a name that reflects the excitement of soaring out over the canyon.”

Located on the edge of Glenwood Canyon between the Giant Canyon Swing and the Cliffhanger Roller Coaster, the ride will swing riders out approximately 1,400 feet above the Colorado River. The swing, which is under construction in Venice, Italy, will resemble a large tree with a brown trunk and green foliage at the top. Upon completion in early April, it will travel by ship to the U.S. for installation and will be open to the public in May.

Contest entries may also be emailed to cavegirl (at) glenwoodcaverns (dot) com or submitted via Twitter tagged with @GlenwoodCaverns by midnight on Feb. 14. After the names are collected, the park’s management team will select 10 finalists. Those 10 will be posted on Facebook so that fans can vote for their favorites through Feb. 26. The winner will be selected by the park and announced on or about Mar. 5. Individuals may submit more than one entry. In the event that the winning name is submitted by more than one person, the first person to submit it will be deemed the winner.

Time to get those thinking caps on!

Cliffhanger Roller Coaster at Glenwood Caverns

The Cliffhanger at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park is the highest-elevation full-sized roller coaster in America! The highest part of the 50-foot-tall Cliffhanger Roller Coaster curves alongside the edge of Glenwood Canyon, more than 1,400 feet above the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys.

Located in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, the Adventure Park, which brought the first Alpine Coaster to the U.S. in 2005, also offers thrill seekers the Giant Canyon Swing, which swings riders out 1,300 feet above the Colorado River in a pneumatically powered, zero-Gs thrill ride; the Soaring Eagle Zip Ride; and a wild, on-your-belly tour of Glenwood Caverns and the Historic Fairy Caves.

Top 10 Things for Families to Do in Colorado this Summer

Photo op from Exclamation Point
Photo op from Exclamation Point

Go jump off a cliff! Trekaroo, a popular family travel planning website, just released its list of the Top 10 Things for Families to Do in Colorado…and Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park is included! In the ever-popular Jump Off a Cliff category, written just for those thrill-seeking families out there, the Giant Canyon Swing is called out for “launching daring riders 1,300 feet out and over the Colorado River trailing below.”
The article also includes the Wild Tour, Alpine Coaster and Zip Ride, which when combined with the Bungee Jump and the new Cliffhanger Roller Coaster opening this spring, makes a pretty exciting day for adventurous families. Here’s how that day could play out this summer (many of these rides are seasonal, this is to help you plan your summer vacation) …

9 a.m. — Hop on board the Iron Mountain Tramway and enjoy a scenic ride to the Adventure Park, which is nestled in the mountains overlooking Glenwood Springs, Colorado, voted the Most Fun Town in America in the Rand McNally and USA Today Best of the Road program. Check out the park map during the ride so that you can hit the ground running when you get to the top.

9:30 — Ride the Alpine Coaster one or five times. It was the first in the U.S. and is still the longest Alpine Coaster in Colorado. You will love it. Kids at least eight years old and 56” tall can ride alone, kids three and older can ride with an adult.

10:15 — Ride the new Cliffhanger Roller Coaster! Located slightly above the rest of the park, sitting at 7,160 feet, you’ll get amazing views of the Roaring Fork Valley…if you can keep your eyes open as it whips you around the curve right along the edge of Glenwood Canyon.

11:00 — Head for the Giant Canyon Swing, which was featured on the Travel Channel and Good Morning America, and see what all the fuss is about. Watch it a time or two, then get strapped in for the ride of a lifetime. Make sure someone has the video camera going so you can prove that you rode it.

11:45 — Make your way to the Bungee Tower. You can try the Soaring Eagle Zip Ride first, which zips you down the mountain, over the Alpine Coaster, and then back up to the top again. If you’re really brave, it’s time to try the Bungee Jump. It’s 70 feet up; you can jump, free fall backwards, or dive head first. Again, make sure someone is taping it so you can share your screams with your friends later.

12:30 — Time for lunch. The Lookout Grille offers some of the best panoramic views in Colorado, and features burgers, salads, sandwiches, a great kids’ menu and more.

1:30 — While you’re in the building, head upstairs and try out the Laser Tag Arena. It was just repainted this year, and the kids will have a blast.

2:15 — Head back outside and take your pick: the new Mine Wheel or Wild West Express Coaster, perfect for the young ones in the group, or race through Fort WhereAmI, a giant Western-style human maze. Take your camera and snap some shots from the towers, the views are incredible.

3:00 — You might need a breather now, so grab a cold drink at the Snack Shack and try the gemstone sluice box mining, pick out a geode and have it cut, or see how good of a shot you are at the Mining Shaft Shootin’ Gallery. You can also get an old time photo taken at Silk’s Saloon.

4:00 — Take the guided 70-minute tour of Glenwood Caverns and Historic Fairy Caves. It’s suitable for almost everyone, but there are 127 steps down and back up again, so be prepared to carry the little ones if needed. (Sign up at the base when you arrive in the morning, the tours can fill up during the summer.)

5:15 — Pick your favorite rides and try them again!

6:30 — Time for another cold drink on the deck at the Lookout Grille, and maybe a slice of pizza at the Snack Shack. If you can stay for the sunset, you won’t be disappointed.

If your family is not quite adventurous enough for the Giant Canyon Swing, and Cliffhanger Roller Coaster and Bungee Jump, never fear. You’ll find plenty to do. The park also features a sand pit fossil dig, climbing wall, Giddy Up Western Ride, Wild West Wagon ride, new Mine Wheel and Wild West Express Coaster.

Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park is located just off I-70, midway between Vail and Aspen. During the winter and spring, guests can enjoy the Iron Mountain Tramway, Alpine Coaster, Laser Tag, 4D Motion Theater and guided cave tours. The rest of the park’s attractions are scheduled to open by Memorial Weekend. For more information, visit glenwoodcaverns.com or call 800-530-1635, ext. 0.

Read the whole Trekaroo “Top 10 Things for Families to Do in Colorado” list.

Now, who’s ready for summer?

Glenwood Springs named Most Fun Town in America

Giant Canyon Swing

Glenwood Springs named Most Fun Town in America by Rand McNally and USA Today

One of the great things about living in Glenwood Springs is the number of choices we have when it comes to having fun. While we’ve known this for years, Glenwood Springs garnered national attention last week by being named the Most Fun Town in America by Rand McNally and USA Today in the inaugural Best of the Road Rally.
Narrowed down from more than 600 submissions, 30 top towns in five categories – Most Beautiful, Most Patriotic, Friendliest, Most Fun, and Best for Food – were selected for review. Five teams of amateur travelers completed a three-week cross-country road trip, for a combined 25,000 miles traveled, personally visiting the six top towns in their assigned categories.

Giant Canyon Swing

The mother-daughter team, TravelingJules and TravelingJoan, reviewed the six finalists in the Most Fun category: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Santa Claus, Indiana; Park City, Utah; Vacaville, California; Yellow Springs, Ohio; and, our favorite, Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

The ladies spent the 4th of July weekend here in town, packing what many visitors might do here during a week into two action-filled days. Highlights included attending the hilarious Glenwood Vaudeville Revue, rafting the Colorado River, exploring Glenwood Caverns and Historic Fairy Caves and riding the Alpine Coaster, Soaring Eagle Zip Ride and Giant Canyon Swing at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, soaring high above Glenwood Springs in a tandem paraglider, exploring the back country by ATV with Glenwood Adventure Company, soaking in the Glenwood Hot Springs Pool, and relaxing with a soothing pedicure at the Spa of the Rockies.

Sounds like the definition of fun to me!